Collator



C. A. KIMBROUGH COLLATOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR CizarlesA.Kz'rzz1ni-0bQh ATTORNEY June 27, 1961 Filed April 18, 1958 june 27, 1961 c, A, KIMBROUGH 2,990,174

COLLATOR Filed April 18; 1958 3 Sheets-$heet 2 ClZarle5A.Kimbr-oug'1z BY 6M,

Unit Sim Pate-1Q 2,990,174 COLIJATOR v Charles A'. Kimbrough, Fort Worth, Tex. Filed Apr. 18, 1958, Ser. No. 729,485

- 2 Claims. (Cl. 271-88) (Granted under Title '35, US. Code (1952), sec. 266) The invention described herein, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the'Govcrnment for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon. i This invention relates to collators for use in connection with duplicating machines such as multilith machines, and has for its primary object to provide a simplified yet reliable construction -by which the sheet distributing mechanism may be associated with the duplicating ma chine and operated by the mechanism usually employed to operate the counter on machines of that type.

Another object of the invention resides in the construction of a collator in which a vertically disposed contain- Patented June .27, 1961.

as a unit the side plates 12 and 13 and the latter are ends by the cross bars 17 and 18, respectively. The web er is composed of a vertically disposed series of openv apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a portion of a duplicating machine with the novel collator associated therewith;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged rear elevational view of the collator, partly in section;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the collator disassociated from the duplicating machine and showing the container as having descended to its lowermost position;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of the collator taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 6 with the container in its uppermost position ready to be charged by sheets delivered by the duplicating machine;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged vertical fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view on line 6-6 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 8-8 of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings in more detail and more particularly to FIGS. 2 to 5, inclusive, the vertically disposed frame member of the collator is indicated generally by the numeral 1 and the vertically reciprocal container by the numeral 2. The frame in the present illustration comprises two laterally spaced standards 3, the spacing approximating the width of the container 2. Each standard 3 is composed of two L-shapedlegs 4 held together in spaced relationship by a plurality of tie plates 5 spaced Vertically along the length of each standard as clearly indicated on FIG. 3. These standards 3 are also fixedly secured together at their upper and lower ends by tie bands 6 and 7, respectively, and they serve as guideways or tracks for the container 2 as will appear hereinafter.

The laterally spaced standards 3-3 are also braced in their spaced relationship by means of upper and lower cross braces 8 and 9, respectively, and the lower end of the frame as thus composed is welded or otherwise secured to legs 10 of inverted U-shaped design.

The container 2 is composed of a plurality of down wardly inclined trays or compartments 11, there being 35 trays disclosed in the present illustration. This num ber may, of course, be increased or decreased as desired. These elements 11 of the container 2 are secured together portions 16' of the T-bars are each provided with a series of ratchet teeth 19 for cooperation with pawls 20. These pawls are pressed into cooperative relationship with the ratchet by means of springs 21, and are connected by links 22 with solenoids 23. These solenoids are energized to release the ratchets in a manner to be hereinafter described. The T-bars 16 are provided at their upper and lower ends with pairs of rollers 24 which engages the outwardly projecting portions of the legs 4 serving as trackways to guide the container in its vertical movements. Cables 25 have their upper ends secured to the frame of the container 2 as indicated by the numeral 26. These cables are reeved over guide pulleys 27 rotatably mounted in brackets 28 secured to the top of the standards 3 of the collator. The opposite ends of the cables 25 are attached to counterweights 29 which move upwardly and downwardly within the vertically disposed cylinders 30 which are secured to the main frame of the collator by means of brackets 31 and by welding or otherwise attaching the lower ends to the inverted U-shaped legs 10 of the main frame.

The solenoids 23 heretofore referred to are mounted upon brackets 32 which are connected to the standards 3 and extend laterally therefrom to provide suitable supports for the solenoids. These brackets also serve to support the feed rollers 33 which receive the printed sheets from the belts 33 which receive the printed sheets from the duplicating machine. These rollers are mounted on vertically extending arms 34 which may be in tegrally connected to plates 35, which are in turn secured to base plate 36' and brackets 32 by bolts 37. Attached to the opposite side of the base plate 36 by bolts 38 is a guide plate 39 which is formed with spaced slots 40 through which bolts 38 pass whereby to permit vertical adjustment. The upper end of this plate is bent in the direction of the container 2 to provide a horizontal portion 41 which serves to guide the printed sheets as they leave the rollers 33, into the open end of the adjacent tray or compartment 11 of the container 2.

Reverting to the duplicating machine which is designated by reference letter A, the printing mechanism is indicated generally by the letter B. The letter C indicates an arm on an oscillating shaft of the printing mechanism. This arm is operated each time a sheet of paper passes through the machine, but remains inoperative if a sheet fails to pass. Operation of the arm C closes a switch D electrically connected by wiring E with the solenoids 23. Thus the pawls 20 are withdrawn fromthe ratchets 19 each time a printed sheet passes through the duplicating machine over the belts 33 into one of the trays of the container 2 and the container is therefore allowed to drop by gravity to be arrested by engagement of the pawls with the next tooth of each of the ratchet bars.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that I have devised an exceedingly simple and inexpensive mechanism for distributing and arranging a plurality of sets of printed sheets which may be thereafter fastened together to form pamphlets or the like, that the distributor is operated by gravity in synchronism with the duplicating machine, and that provision is made to insure operation of the distributor only upon the passage of a printed sheet through the machine.

In accordance with the patent statutes I have described t 3 what I now consider to be the preferred form of the invention but inasmuch as various minor changes may be made in structural details without departing from the spirit of the invention it is intended that all such changes be included within the scope of the appended'clai'ms.

I claim: 7

'1. attachment for a duplicating machine having an arm adapted to be automatically operated each time asheet of paper passes through the machine. and means for carrying sheets from the machine, said attachment comprising a separate vertically disposed frame, a pair oflegs on which the frame is mounted, a container, said container being provided with a plurality of vertically arranged, open-sided compartments, mounting means slidably mounting said containerin said frame, said mounting means comprising a pair of upright members, means readily detachably connecting said upright members to said container on opposite sides thereof, a vertically disposed series of ratchet teeth fixed to each of said upright members, a solenoid operated pawl mounted on each side of the frame in cooperative relation with one of said series of ratchet teeth and adapted to permit a step-bystep downward movement of said upright members together with the container past the sheet-carrying means, and an electric switch for association with said am for simultaneously actuating both solenoid operated pawls as each sheet passes through the duplicating machine to which the attachment is connected.

sheet of paper passes through the machine and means for carrying sheets from the machine, said attachment comprising a separate vertically disposed frame, a pair of legs on which the frame is mounted, a container, mounting means slidably mounting said container in the frame, a counter-balance weight associated with the container, said container provided with a plurality of vertically arranged, open-sided compartments, said mounting means comprising two T-bars disposed vertically on op- 2. An attachment for a duplicating machine having an posite sides of said container, pin and slot means readily detachably connecting said T-bars to said container, said T-bars having laterally oppositely outwardly directed webs, each of said webs being'formed with a vertically disposed series of ratchet teeth, a solenoid operated pawl mounted on each side of the frame in cooperativerela tion with one of said series of ratchet teeth and adapted to permit a step-by-step downward movement of said T'-ba.rs and the container past the sheet-carrying means,"

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 615,636 Regensteiner Dec. 6, 1898 1,567,153 Kelly Dec. 29, 1925 1,915,376 Meme June 27, 1933 Brasseur May 5, 1942 

